Progression
by somebody's world
Summary: NaruSaku oneshot reflecting on how Sakura and Naruto's relationship progresses throughout the series and into the future.  Overdose of fluff.  T for sexual references.


As much as I wish I was as awesome as Kishimoto, I don't own Naruto.

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**Progression**

**/ nikushimi - hate \**

She laughs at him, a cold, cruel, merciless sound, full of humorless mirth and joyless pleasure. Her only intention is to hurt him, and he knows it. He thinks there should be two completely separate words for her laughter– one for this, and one for the genuine and sweet melody she produces when she's with _him. _Her beloved _Sasuke-kun._

He smiles, because although it stings him, although it makes his insides churn and ache and it hurts like hell, at least this way he knows she's _there _and she _notices _him. He has gotten used to the feeling – because, after all, she never has really liked him – but still, he can't help but wish that there was something else there, something that could make her at least accept him.

The cruel laughter continues, and he pushes away the empty wishes that some day, _some day_, she could laugh _with _him, not _at _him.

But he knows it will be a long time from now, _if_ it will ever happen.

**/ nagusami - comfort \**

She cried when she realized Sasuke left. She had tried her hardest to make him stay – she had done all that she could do, but it just hadn't been enough. She cried hard, because she loved him, and she didn't want him to go and she was hurt. She cried tears of regret, of sadness, of loss, of fear, of emotions she couldn't even name – she cried hard, and maybe they understood, because no one told her to toughen up.

He saw her pain and sympathized with her and promised to bring Sasuke back. She didn't know why (he was such an _idiot! _half the things he said didn't make _sense!_), but she was comforted. If anything, he was brave. And determined. Her brain screamed that it didn't make sense, but she knew her heart that if anyone could bring Sasuke back, it was him. He was the only one who would stop at nothing to keep his promise to her. She watched him exit the gates of Konoha, smiling as jauntily as ever, and her heart lifted just a little watching him walk further and further into the distance, closer and closer to her Sasuke-kun.

She went home that night and cried, though not as hard and not as long as she had before. She had a source of comfort now. It made her feel a little better knowing she wasn't alone in her sadness, and she now had hope that things would start to look up. Because he had promised her, and he never goes back on his word.

She thought of the blonde-haired shinobi and smiled through her tears.

**/ yuujou - friendship \**

_He's such an idiot. Such a clumsy, stupid, immature klutz of a shinobi._

"On the inside, you haven't grown at all! Don't make me beat you senseless when I've only seen you for two minutes, after not seeing you at all for two years!"

_Damn, what a retard. What a stupid, insensitive, pathetic pervert. I thought he might have changed, have grown up at least a little –_

She won't admit it to herself, but she's glad he hasn't changed because, after all, Naruto without his childish nature just wouldn't be Naruto. She's glad that his blue eyes still sparkle as brightly as ever, that he still insists on wearing his customary orange jumpsuit (even though it clashes horribly with his still-bright blonde hair); no matter how much may have happened in the two years since he had left, at least Naruto is still the same endearingly naïve kid as before.

_At least some things have stayed the same._

(Though it certainly wouldn't have hurt if he had commented on how gorgeous she had become.)

_Welcome back, Naruto. I missed you._

And after two years, they start over – a perfect new beginning to an old friendship.

**/ tomadoi - confusion \**

She doesn't understand it. Adolescence is such a vague and confusing time.

Slowly, _very _slowly, her thoughts and fantasies of gorgeous Sasuke-kun blurred and faded and were replaced. At first, she thought it was just because she hadn't seen him since that fateful day he had left Konoha. At first, she expected things to turn back to normal overnight, and at first, she believed it could happen.

But eventually, she began to realize that even if he _did_ come back, things could never go back to the way they used to be. Too much time had passed, too many days and nights had disappeared and would never come back, and each one dampened her (already dim) hopes a little more. Sakura had always been an optimistic person; she knew that shouldn't have stopped her from hoping and wishing that things might not change as much as they should. (But it _did_.) She went to bed at night expecting to have dreams of Sasuke, of what could never be, to lift her spirits and continue to give her hope. (And she did, _at first_.)

But as time passed, she began to have dreams of _him _instead. Wonderful – or were they terrible? – dreams, blissfully wrong dreams. They were together, in every sense of the word, wasting time, talking and laughing in perfect contentment (among other things that tinged her cheeks as pink as her hair when she remembered them in the morning). And despite all she did to ignore them, to block them out of her mind, she _enjoyed _the dreams.

She got butterflies around him. Well, maybe not butterflies – those were gentle and calm, causing _flutters _instead of whatever the hell was going on in her stomach. Perhaps they were bees instead. She felt stinging jolts of fiery adrenaline when he said her name, when he touched her, when he flirted with her, although she couldn't honestly say the sensation was entirely unpleasant. In fact, the voice in her head kept insisting that she enjoyed it more than she let on.

(She tried to push the little voice to the back of her mind. It was crazy, she was mental, she couldn't be falling for him. But no matter how much she tried to force herself to think of Sasuke instead – or, when that failed, even other boys – it was to her surprise and dismay that her thoughts always floated back to the loud, irritating blonde.)

She hated that damned voice.

_I can't possibly fall for him_, she told herself.

But the voice told her she could.

**/ koufuku - happiness \**

There is an unspoken desperation in the way she kisses him, so hungrily, so forcefully, not because she wants to hurt him – she was over that long ago – but because she _needs _him and she _wants _him and she's afraid he'll turn away if she doesn't make sure he understands the urgency she feels.

She's sorry for how she treated him before. She tells him so, not through words, but through the intensity with which she kisses and touches and caresses him.

She looks into his (still bright and beautiful blue) eyes, deciding that words would not suffice after such a fantastic nonverbal expression of intimacy.

He meets her gaze, silently telling her that it's all _all right, _wiping her tears tenderly with his thumb, and for a stubborn moment she is back in her childhood, hating him for the unbelievable ease with which he forgives her.

_God knows, he's been through it all. The man deserves to be happy. I could be the one –_

And, though Sakura cannot imagine why he still wants _her, _of all people, even after all the times she's laughed at him and ignored him and insulted him, and though Naruto is still shocked by the suddenness of the kiss, they both know she will.

_We were made for each other..._

**/ ai - love \**

He keeps his promise, just as she keeps hers.

_I do. _And she does.

She loves him with all her heart, with every fiber of her being, without bound or restraint or rhyme or reason, because love isn't an emotion that is meant to make sense. _It's a good thing too, _she thinks, chuckling softly at the sight of her newlywed husband curled up next to her, fast asleep, still wearing his ridiculous black nightcap even at age twenty-one.

Despite all she does to convince him otherwise, he goes on a mission to fulfill the promise he had made all those years ago – _the promise of a lifetime,_ he insists – and she cries when he leaves.

_It's funny, _she thinks, _I haven't cried like this since Sasuke-kun left._

And when the Uchiha returns, his brother dead and his best friend very much alive, she smiles and cries and hugs them both and all is forgiven and wonderful and _changed_, but not irreparably.

She sobs into the soft orange fabric of his jumpsuit and mumbles a soft "Thank you" to the man who has given her everything she could possibly want and more. And she has no problem giving him all her love in return.

Her life is _perfect._

**Her life was full of choices. She didn't think she could love him, but she took a leap of faith and found she could.**

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A/N:** Sorry, this was kind of random... but R & R anyways! I want to know your honest opinions - what you liked, what you thought I could do better on, etc. Thanks for reading! 


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